coming undone
close to the team described it as an intervention. A few hours later, Smith’s joke went over as well in the league office as Dennis Rodman’s trip to North Korea.
Woodson refused to address Smith’s status before or after Thursday’s victory, which only added to the confusion. That is a Knicks specialty, of course.
Smith claims he arrived for work, albeit $50,000 poorer, fully expecting to play against Miami. He also claims that Woodson never addressed the fine or the benching with him.
“That’s the most misleading part of it,” Smith said. “I can see if I was told, but there was no conversation about it. But it is what it is. We got the ‘W.’ ”
This doesn’t make Smith a martyr, the way Dolan famously turned Sprewell into one more than a decade earlier. Still, it wasn’t handled well, and it was pretty weird seeing Smith seated within 15 feet of actress Katie Holmes and Smith’s enabler, Dolan.
Dolan is trying to distance himself from Smith the way Holmes ran away from Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology. Dolan should have been smarter last summer when he foolishly signed Smith to a three-year contract when the team knew the guard was headed for knee surgery.
A one-year deal — Smith is at his best when motivated — would have sufficed. If Smith balked, so be it. Heck, the Knicks had already drafted Tim Hardaway Jr. anyway.
Smith has never been right physically, and his conduct deteriorated rapidly last week once the club informed him it was cutting his younger brother, Chris. J.R. tweeted a reference to feeling betrayed, and a few nights later in Houston, he took an ill-advised shot in a tie game because he mistakenly thought the O Knicks were losing. n ESPN Radio i n New York on Thursday, Smith’s former coach in Denver, George Karl, said it perfectly: “He’s going to wake up some day and he’s going to realize that he’s thrown away some great opportunities and great years because of this mockery that he brings to the game.”
It’s a little late in the game, but the Knicks have clearly had it with Smith. And Smith knows it.